A World of Music and Dance

Electric Vardo February 2016 Newsletter

Ok, so I successfully got to kicking off 2016 with a new post and a few website tweaks.

Hello Beautiful people. I hope you have had a good start to your year. If you haven’t, I hope it starts shaping up for you nicely heading toward springtime. I’m still having a hard time remembering to write 2016 on things.

Yeah, that’s David Satori and me with Auberon last fall at the House of Tarot show in SF. I’m not quite sure how that happened!

I had the amazing opportunity to be a part of ATS Homecoming this year (a gathering of the global ATS community in January). I provided sound and lighting for the shows, sound for the workshops, and recorded video of the shows. It was an amazing event with awesome workshops, vendors, shows and more for 3 days. This was the 2nd Annual, and with the success of 2 years in a row, they are planning it again next year. Keep an eye out. Highly recommended.

ATS Homecoming 2015 students, instructors, hosts and crew.

As promised, I am back with a February newsletter with updates on upcoming events this month and a glimpse forward into the next couple of months. Sam and I have some pretty awesome things coming up, as do our Electric Vardo alumni partners and family.

Tuesdays at F8 – 1192 Fosom, SF – UNDERGROUND NOMADS – World Beats & Belly Dance
– See our weekly lineups at undergroundnomads.com –
We have rotating resident dancers and DJs each week. The nights kick off at 8pm with an hour of music, drink specials and Happy Hour Appetisers. We do one to two sets of dance performances, starting at around 9:30 (2nd set around 10). We will have 3-5 performances on any given night, sometimes more. On Special nights (for example, last week we celebrated our resident Millie’s birthday and had twice as many performances) we will have more performances. On quarterly 5th Tuesdays, Underground Nomads hosts 5th Tuesday benefits, raising funds for various charity organizations chosen by members of our crew, where we invite local vendors and usually showcase around 10 performances.
We ask for a $5 donation at the door (Sliding scale $5-20 on benefit and Special nights). Our next 5th Tuesday Benefit is on March 29th.

Fri. 2/12 – DR ISRAEL headlines Dub Mission‘s new 2nd Fridays at Elbo Room with MC Luv Fyah, DUB MISSION Sound System, DJ Sep, Maneesh the Twister(Note that Dub Mission’s Legendary weekly Sunday has moved to a Monthly format on 2nd Fridays at Elbo Room). This is gonna be an amazing East Coast Meets West Coast night, with some heavy weight dub pioneers in the house.dr Israel talks about Dub Mission.

Fri. 2/12 – BEATS ANTIQUE in Los Angeles
– Calamity Sam will be joining Beats Antique at Club Nokia –
Join Beats Antique, Lettuce, and Lafa Taylor on February 12, 2016 at Club NOKIA in Downtown LA for some great music, groovy vibes, and dancing all night long. This is an all ages show. Show starts at 8:00 PM. Tickets

Sat. 2/13 – ECLECTIC ENSEMBLE, Los Angeles
Amar & Sam are heading down to see their SoCal Family and joining their friends at their favorite lil house-party-hafla style event. This time around, we get to do it on a Saturday night. We have almost 20 performers signed up to perform. What happens at this event? Amar mixes the music live – on the fly – for tag team performances. The dancers don’t know what Amar is going to play for them, and Amar doesn’t know who’s going on next. Our MC pulls the dancers names out of a hat when it’s time to switch. We do 2 sets of performances, with music before, between and after. It’s just a whole lotta fun. Details at e2la.wordpress.com – Oh, and we stream live.Doors at 8pm. Performance sets at 9 and 10pm. Music before, between and after. Bring a snack and beverage for our shared food’n’drink table. $10 requested donation. Donavon’s Studio Iqaat. 3515 Eagle Rock Blvd. Los Angeles, CA

Calamity Sam teaches regular weekly classes in Oakland/Emeryville (East Bay) at Ellen Webb Studios on Monday Evenings. She also teaches Thursday classes (See her website for class schedules) at FCBD Studio in SF. Information on Calamity Sam’s Classes, workshops, performances and costuming – including her famous ‘Butt Covers’ – can be found at her blog site thecalamitysam.com

2/25-28 – REIGNING DOWN ON OREGON, Salem, ORAmar will be teaching his music editing workshop and shooting video. CalamitySam will be teaching a choreography workshop and the Debut SAMWICH workshop – a 4 hour session with Samantha Riggs & Calamity Sam. What?You may have seen The Samwich Performances by Samantha Riggs and Calamity Sam at Cues & Tattoos or Tribal Fest in the last couple of years, but now they are teaching together. Both are teaching individual classes, AND The SAMWICH – a 4 hour class together, for the First time Ever, at Reigning Down on Oregon. We are looking forward to this Dance Retreat, out in the woods of Salem, Oregon, with awesome people, performances and cabin lodging. Come join us if you can. There are shows on Friday And Saturday nights.

1/30, 2/27 – NON STOP BHANGRA, Public Works, SF
Just coming off of the 2016 Kick Off with NSB’s 120th, preparations for Episode 121 are underway. Each month features Special Guests and our resident crew Jimmy Love, Nix, Pavit on dhol, Amar on visuals and performances (plus dance lesson) by Dholrhythms. NSB is SF’s longest running monthly Bhangra party with the most eclectic mix of artists and audience. (Note: Amar will be up in Oregon for this one. If you are in SF, don’t miss it). Check nonstopbhangra.com for the January and February lineup.

Also – Coming up in March and April (details in next month’s e-mailers):

4/1-3 – CUES & TATTOOS, Seattle, WA
– Amar will be co-hosting the Emerald Vardo AfterParty and shooting video at the shows. Sam will be teaching.

Registration is live for both events. Click on the titles for info.

MUSIC . MUSIC . MUSIC

Before I go, I would like to share an announcement of a newly released Digital Download – a Rare Recording of Classical North Indian Ragas on Bansuri by Master of the Bamboo Flute, G.S. Sachdev, with the legend on tabla, Zakir Hussain.This recording is from a 1975 concert in Colorado, and is transferred from tape in its original fidelity. It is available on Bandcamp for download, and can be ordered on CD starting in March at gssachdev.com

On that note, I am still working on my own album. I have 2 full tracks down, and several more in the works. The first track is on my soundcloud page.

Once again, I must acknowledge that we couldn’t be doing what we love to do without you. Thank you for your continued support.